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nun-coffee

Posted 10 February 2015 - 12:41 PM

but continue to have problems. I have still not put anything back onto the machine that was there before reformatting and am very careful where I go/what I do online so am happy that previous results stand & this is not hdd or boot virus/malware. Problems are;

1. Different notification windows pop up randomly without me doing anything, such as one below from Opera:

"cant open user profile directory because you lack sufficient privileges. you might want to contact

the administrator of this machine"

2. Opera usually stable and responsive but now keeps crashing every few minutes. This is one of the error messages;

5. No previously disappeared function has returned, now task manager also gone on regular account. Still have on administrator account and "chkdsk" reports no problems

6. Avira runs daily but is back to closing without giving results, Eraser starts when computer starts no matter how many times I change settings for it not to do this, items saved to Opera boomarks disappear, items I didn't install show up when I search programs and files such as 16 instances of

"mortgage calculator.css" (this is a Bing app. I uninstalled Bing after reformat on 22 Jan)

7. C drive shows 125gb used but there should be nothing on there apart from Windows files installed after reformat and a few programs I installed (Eraser, VLC, Opera, Peerblock, Avira, Youtubedownloader, Startmenu, Security Task Manager).

8. There are 4 user profiles on C drive, I set up 2. The two extra ones are "Public" and "UpdatusUser" which says it was modified on 23/05/2013 but I reformatted machine on 22 January 2015.

This machine is an MSI CX-61 (i7 haswell, 64bit, 16gig RAM) & has been a lemon from day one. Now I am thinking either bios virus or failing hdd. Does anyone agree/ have other suggestions? I can't afford to replace the machine just now.

Also if this does seem like a hdd problem, can anyone recommend a good replacement drive? I don't want SSD so am thinking 1tb (same size as current for ease of change) but FAST and simple for a newbie to deal with

phillpower2

Posted 10 February 2015 - 03:06 PM

phillpower2

Tech Staff

Technician

20,025 posts

Hello nun-coffee,

Download then run Speccy (free) and post the resultant url for us, details here, this will provide us with information about your computer hardware + any software that you have installed that may explain the present issue/s.

Tip

Please do not reply to your own OP or last reply as it may lead to your request for help being overlooked, staff and members who assist on the forums will always check out a topic that has not received any replies to see if they are able to help, if you reply to your own OP it will appear to others viewing the board that you have received a reply and so are already being helped.

Posted 10 February 2015 - 05:50 PM

phillpower2

Posted 11 February 2015 - 12:11 PM

phillpower2

Tech Staff

Technician

20,025 posts

Hello nun-coffee,

Couple of things to begin with;

While troubleshooting remove any USB storage devices such as thumb drives and or external USB HDDs etc.

Are you aware that Windows 8 and 8.1 both have an updated version of Windows Defender that offers the same real time protection as Microsoft Security Essentials, you do not need third party AV protection and by not installing any you are reducing the possibility of potential conflicts and freeing up resources on your computer, information courtesy of admin here

To see if this is a Windows issue download then run the All in One Repair from here, disregard the malware guidance but follow the other steps to the letter and in particular ensuring that you first create a new restore point and perform a proper Windows clean boot before running the repair, details for the clean boot here.

nun-coffee

Posted 12 February 2015 - 12:41 PM

nun-coffee

New Member

Topic Starter

Member

9 posts

Hello, just giving a quick update;

I followed the steps in the Tweaking Computer program, the repairs section wouldn't run so I downloaded reimage and let it scan the machine. It reported numerous errors but I wasn't wiling to buy a license since it is reported as malware all over the internet. Instead I am going to buy Windows reinstall discs and hope that will solve the problem.